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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26948083">An Unwelcome Visitor</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/NeasieB/pseuds/NeasieB'>NeasieB</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Ghosts (TV 2019)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Button House (Ghosts TV 2019), Gen, Haunted Object, Pitt Rivers Museum Oxford</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 17:55:01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,279</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26948083</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/NeasieB/pseuds/NeasieB</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>An old necklace couldn't cause much trouble, could it?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Alison/Mike (Ghosts TV 2019), Mike (Ghosts TV 2019)/original female character</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>44</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>An Unwelcome Visitor</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was the archaeologists who found it. As they sifted the soil above the plague pit in the cellar to make sure they hadn't overlooked any artefacts, they discovered a metal box about the size of a man's hand, bound shut with two metal bands. </p>
<p>“This looks Victorian. I wonder how it got down here”, said the lead archaeologist. He took photos of it from all possible angles and then pushed experimentally at the metal bands to see if they would move. The plague pit ghosts, who had previously been watching the study of their mortal remains with fascination, immediately became agitated. “I wouldn't do that” said the tallest plague pit ghost. “No, no, absolutely not” added the shorter, bearded one. All the plague ghosts began to chorus together. “Don't open the box! Don't open the box!” The archaeologist, unable to hear them, opened the box. “How very interesting” he said. “The box appears to be Victorian, but this is undoubtedly a 15th century pendant on a chain. Gold set with garnets, by the look of it. It almost looks as if it was deliberately buried”. He lifted up the jewel and turned it over in his hands. </p>
<p>The cellar grew colder and a cold wind began to swirl round. “Oh-oh”, said the tallest plague ghost. “That's done it”.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>Alison was heating tuna pasta bake in the microwave and making tea. She took the plates out of the cupboard and when she turned round all the plague pit ghosts were standing no more than two feet in front of her. She almost dropped the plates. “Oh! I wish you wouldn't do that!” she gasped. “Why are you up here anyway? I mean, you're welcome any time – almost any time – but you prefer the cellar, don't you? Is there something the matter with the boiler?”</p>
<p>“No, no, Betsy's fine” said the tall distinguished-looking ghost (Walter? Was it Walter? Why could she never remember their names?).”We've come to warn you”.</p>
<p>“Doom be upon this house” wailed the older lady ghost whose name Alison had never known.</p>
<p>“What? What are you talking about”.</p>
<p>The shorter, bearded ghost (John? She wanted to say John) stepped forward. “Cruel Margaret has been released”, he said. </p>
<p>“Er, what is that? An album or something?” Alison said, confused.</p>
<p>“She's a spirit” said the ghost in yellow and green (Mick? Or was it Nick?). “Not a very nice one”.</p>
<p>“Ah. I'm guessing the name isn't ironic and she isn't known for her love of fluffy kittens and marshmallows?”</p>
<p>“She was the lady of the manor house that was here after our village but before Button House was built” explained the well-spoken, dark-haired plague ghost (Cecily, was it? Or Margery? Or something else entirely? Alison had to admit defeat). “She was a terrible person. Everyone was terrified of her, even her own husband. She had three husbands before she married the lord here, and people said she killed them all. She would take any man she fancied to her bed – noble, servant, or soldier – it made no difference to her. And she plotted and betrayed and corrupted. She died of an apoplexy brought on by one of her fits of rage, but stayed as a ghost and plagued the house for centuries. Eventually a wise woman told the owners of the house that if they shut up the garnet pendant she always used to wear in a box and buried it, they'd be free of her. They did and they were. But, twice before the pendant has been released and Cruel Margaret's spirit with it. And now it's happened a third time”.</p>
<p>“Doom, doom is on this house!” cried the older lady ghost. </p>
<p>“You need to rebury the pendant as soon as possible” said possibly-Walter. “Until you do she will roam this house and cause havoc”. </p>
<p>“Not to us, though” said Mick-or-Nick. “We're off back to our cellar. She never goes down there”.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>Cruel Margaret was dressed in the height of 15th century fashion in a heavy green brocade dress with a square neckline and a fur trim. She wore a winged wimple-like headdress. The dress alone frightened Mary who backed away saying that green was the colour of faery folk and not for the god-fearing. Unfortunately, it was not just her clothing that terrified the ghosts. She stalked into the drawing room and the ghosts instinctively shrunk against the wall on the opposite side of the room. “Oh you're back again, are you?” said Humphrey's head from the table on which he was lying. “Who let you out?” Kitty, terrified, began to cry. “I remember you” said Thomas. “When were you last here? It must have been the 1870s. I was here, but Lady Button hadn't yet arrived. I can't say that we've missed you”. He turned to Fanny. “May I present Lady Margaret Hayham, universally and appropriately known as Cruel Margaret”. Fanny pulled a face. “Charmed, I'm sure”. </p>
<p>“Silence!” hissed Cruel Margaret. “Yes, I am returned. Now, which of you shall warm my bed this night?”</p>
<p>“Well technically no one” said Pat. “We're ghosts you see. We can't feel warmth and...” He fell silent as Cruel Margaret fixed him with a glittering stare. She looked round the room. “None of you who were here the last time are worthy” she hissed. “And not you” she added to Pat. “Why are you  wearing short hose? And you're too old”, she added, turning to the Captain. The Captain swallowed and tried not to look relieved. </p>
<p>“Well”, said Julian, straightening his tie, “If I were called upon to, er, make the sacrifice, you know, for the greater good and all that...”</p>
<p>Cruel Margaret fixed him with an icy stare. “No!” she hissed “You are not pleasing to me. You are wearing short hose too. Why is there such a lack of hose here? ”<br/>
She cast her eye around the room. Mike, oblivious to the mayhem going on around him, was peacefully playing Xbox. Cruel Margaret's eye alighted on him. “Him! He is the one I choose!”</p>
<p>There was general horror in the room and Kitty began to cry again. The Captain stood up straight and put his shoulders back.” Now look here madam” he said, “Michael is a married man. Moreover, he can't even see you, I mean, us, and dammit he's alive”.</p>
<p>Cruel Margaret gave a smile that more than lived up to her nickname. “In that case”, she announced, “I must kill him!”</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>The first time Cruel Margaret tried to kill Mike she spread slippery screws and nails from his tool box over the stairs so when Mike stepped on them he lost his footing and went crashing down the rest of the flight. Luckily his feet went forwards from under him and he slid down on his back. He wrenched his hip and was badly bruised along his back and legs, but he didn't bang his head. </p>
<p>The second time Cruel Margaret tried to kill Mike she pushed him into the lake when he was trying to clear some of the weeds from the edge. Luckily Thomas was sulking in the lake about some imagined slight at the time, saw what happened, and fetched Alison. By the time Alison arrived Mike had pulled himself out, cold, dripping, cramped, and with cut hands where he had struggled free of the weeds, but not seriously harmed.</p>
<p>The third time Cruel Margaret tried to kill Mike she filled the bathroom with freezing air when he was in the bath in the hope of chilling him to death. Mike simply decided that the water had got too cold so got out, dried himself, and got dressed. </p>
<p>***</p>
<p>After the third attempt the Captain and Pat both insisted on an emergency meeting in the common room and the other ghosts willingly agreed. Robin was on lookout in case Cruel Margaret decided to join them, but they were fairly certain she wasn't the sociable type.</p>
<p>“Settle down”, said the Captain. “As you are all aware, we are here to discuss the very important issue of Operation Protect Michael. We have tried and we have failed. Despite our best efforts, that woman has tried to kill him no fewer than three times now”.</p>
<p>“But if Michael dies then Alison will be free to love me, but then Alison will be upset, which I don't want, and anyway it would be better if Alison was dead since I am also, and, oh, now I'm confused” said Thomas, who then went and sat in his sighing place to puzzle it out.</p>
<p>Everyone ignored this irrelevant and unhelpful remark. </p>
<p>“The trouble is”, said Kitty, “she has Powers”.</p>
<p>“Yes, that be true” said Mary. “She moves things – not just little things a short way like Julian, ” Julian harrumphed indignantly, “but big things, and even from rooms to rooms, The last time she be here she swepts all the plates from the shelves and shattereds them all”. </p>
<p>“And she can make rooms icy cold” said Kitty. “We can't feel it, but the living can. I hate to think of Alison being all shivery”.</p>
<p>“It is clear,” said the Captain, “that the woman is a menace, an enemy in our midst, and she must be at least contained and if possible removed entirely”</p>
<p>“That will be easier said than done” said Thomas gloomily from his sighing place. “They had to get a spiritualist in last time. We all had to hide in the attics for days to avoid being accidentally exorcised”.</p>
<p>Kitty gave a little shriek at the thought of being exorcised. </p>
<p>“Well obviously” said Fanny, “the key is the pendant. If unearthing the pendant sets her free, then all we have to do is ask Alison to rebury it and then she'll be trapped with it”</p>
<p>Alison came into the room just in time to hear this last remark. “There's just one problem with that”, she said “The archaeologists have taken it to be studied at the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford”.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>Alison and Mike managed, via the archaeologists, to get an appointment at the Pitt Rivers Museum to try to retrieve the pendant. They decided that in the meantime Mike would be safer if he went to stay with his mate Obi for a few days. Alison gave him a lift. Cruel Margaret howled with rage when she saw them leaving, and tried to grab the steering wheel, but Alison was too quick for her.</p>
<p>With Mike away and the visit to the Pitt Rivers Museum not for another 2 weeks, Button House settled into an uneasy stalemate. The ghosts tried to keep out of the way as much as possible. Even Thomas' urge to “comfort” Alison in Mike's absence was overwhelmed by his wish to avoid conflict. Alison spent the time doing jobs around the house. Cruel Margaret had never before encountered a living person who could see her, so refused to believe that Alison could. She swept constantly around the house crying insults. Alison responded with insults of her own. As Alison's insults were distinctively 21st century, and Cruel Margaret's were 15th century, no one was sure how much each understood of the other's abuse. No one offered to act as interpreter. </p>
<p>***</p>
<p>The ghosts were very excited about Alison and Mike's forthcoming trip to Oxford. Thomas said something about once seeing the poet Shelley on Oxford High Street; Fanny said that in her time the university had just started admitting a few women and it was a disgrace; Julian made disparaging remarks comparing it Cambridge; and Humphrey offered up the surprising information that he had been a student at Balliol. “Remember everything and tell us all about it when you return” pleaded Kitty as Alison looked at her messages again to check where she had agreed to meet Mike. </p>
<p>Mike and Alison got off the train in Oxford and found their way to the Pitt Rivers Museum. It wasn't what they expected, being in permanent semi-darkness and packed with such a huge array of varied objects that no one could possibly take it all in. “This is spooky”, said Mike. “You don't know the half of it” replied Alison, waving to a Japanese warrior standing by a glass cabinet filled with weapons from around the world. “I'll ask if anyone knows where we're supposed to be going”.</p>
<p>She waved away the ghost of a fisherman and approached an old lady dressed in 19th century country-woman's costume, who was peacefully knitting next to one glass case. “I wonder if you could...” began Alison, while vaguely wondering if ghost knitting ever grew or if the woman would just continue with it forever. </p>
<p>“Can I helps you?” asked the woman.<br/>

“Oh!” said Alison, startled. “Sorry, you just reminded me of someone, that's all”.<br/>

“That be me”, said the woman indicating a silver flask in the glass case. Alison peered at it. The label said “Bottle said to contain a witch”. “Oh,” said Alison, “That's... nice”.<br/>

“They do say I be trapped in that bottle but of course I's not”, said the old lady. “I means, how could I fits? Superstitious nonsense. But I be tied to that bottle and where goes it, so goes I. I likes it here in the museum. There be plenty of ghosts to talk to and lots of visitors”.<br/>

“That nice”. Alison said again. “You wouldn't happen to know where Dr George's office is?” The old lady pointed vaguely over towards a door and returned to her knitting.</p>
<p>Mike and Alison found the office, knocked gingerly, and went in. Dr George was a slim, dark-haired woman, fizzing with energy. She was very enthusiastic about the pendant. “You see” she said, “the value of this artefact is not so much in the value of the jewel itself, although it is a nice piece, representative of the 15th century. The interest comes from the fact that it deliberately buried in a different time. This is directly relevant to my own area of research. There are many stories of items being believed to be linked to the spirit of their owners, and it was often believed that to confine or destroy the item would confine or destroy the spirit of the owner. But it is fairly unusual to find an actual object associated with this belief. In fact, the museum would be interested in buying the box and the pendant from you, or at least having it on long term loan”. </p>
<p>“No, no, I'm sorry, that won't be possible” said Alison.</p>
<p>“It, er, means a lot to our family” said Mike.</p>
<p>“Really?” said Dr George. “I thought it was only unearthed a few weeks ago and no one knew about it before then”. </p>
<p>“Well, yes,” said Alison hastily, “but since it was found it's become very important to us. We'd never sell it. We're sorry about your study, but we'd really like to take it home as soon as possible”.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>As soon as they got back to Button House with the pendant, Alison went into the kitchen to look  for something suitable to put it in, eventually finding a plastic lidded  multivitamin container in the recycling bin. She put the pendant in it, put a bit of sellotape over the lid for good measure and ran down to the cellar. Then she ran back up to get an old spoon to dig a hole with. The plague pit ghosts watched and made encouraging noises as she dug a hole, put the multivitamin pot into it, and carefully covered it over. “That'll fix you, you old bat” she said, sighing with relief. </p>
<p>When she looked up, Cruel Margaret was standing at the top of the cellar steps. </p>
<p>***</p>
<p>“Clearly you must rebury the pendant to rid us of this menace”, said the Captain.</p>
<p>“Us?” Alison yelled, “It's my husband she's trying to kill! Anyway I did! And it didn't work!”.</p>
<p>She and Mike had been back from Oxford for less than a day and Cruel Margaret had already tried to kill Mike by throwing a heavy vase at him. He had now gone to hide in the cellar. He was scared of the unseen plague ghosts, but far more scared of someone who was both unseen and trying to kill him. </p>
<p>“Er Alison”, said Mary “You did tie red threads rounds it before you burieds it, didn't you? I mean, I know it's obvious but...”</p>
<p>Alison looked at her blankly.</p>
<p>“You has to tie red threads round it firsts. Else the ghost won't be tied to the jewels whens you buries it. Red thread, hold the witches all in dread”, she added, a puff of black smoke emitting from her at the mention of witches. She looked at the other ghosts. “Honestly, I don't know what they teaches them in school these days”.</p>
<p>“We haven't got any red thread”, said Alison.</p>
<p>“Oh really!” said Fanny. “How can you monogram your household linens if you don't have a stock of red thread? Absurd.”</p>
<p>Alison gave her an I-literally-have-no-idea-what-you're-talking-about look. </p>
<p>“I think Lady Heather's sewing box is still in her old room”, said Pat. “There might be some red thread in there”. </p>
<p>Alison and the ghosts all ran upstairs to what was now the Captain's room. Sure enough a big dust-covered sewing box stood in the corner. When Alison opened it she found it was packed to bursting with vintage needles, reels of thread, papers of pins, and other paraphernalia. Touchingly, there was also a half-finished embroidery with the needle rusted into it. The needle was threaded with a length  of red embroidery cotton. Alison gently pulled the cotton out. “That be perfect”, said Mary.</p>
<p>They all ran down to the cellar and Alison scrabbled in the dirt of the floor to unearth the bottle with the pendant in. “What are you doing?” said Mike “I thought you said that would set her off again”.</p>
<p>Alison tried to look knowing. “Red thread” she said, “Everyone knows you need red thread to tie the ghost to the jewel”.</p>
<p>Later that afternoon the pendant had been tied with thread and repackaged in a rinsed-out plastic laundry liquid bottle with the lid stuck on well with multiple layers of packaging tape for extra security.  Mike wrote “Do not open ever. No really don't. Ever.” on it in block capitals in black permanent marker. With the package ready, everyone trooped back down to the cellar. </p>
<p>“It's a pity we can't sell it to the museum” said Mike “They wanted it and we could do with the money to fix the gutters”.</p>
<p>Alison thought about the potential impact of Cruel Margaret on the benign ghosts of the Pitt Rivers. “No, Mike. If that necklace is out there, the ghost goes with it and I can't do that them. She isn't like our ghosts. She's malevolent”.</p>
<p>The ghosts all swelled with pride at hearing Alison describe them as “ours”.</p>
<p>Mike dug a hole in the earth floor of the cellar with the old spoon. The upstairs ghosts and the plague pit ghosts all watched with interest. </p>
<p>“Make it deep,” said Lady Button.<br/>
“Make it deep, Mike”, echoed Alison.</p>
<p>Mike continued to dig. “Oi, watch out. We don't want her in our old grave” said Nick. Or was it Mick?</p>
<p>Mike and Alison placed the bottle in the hole. </p>
<p>Pat swallowed nervously and said “I don't think she'll be very happy about this”.</p>
<p>“I feel like we should say a prayer or something” said Mike. Alison snorted “I don't think she's the type to appreciate that, Mike”</p>
<p>As they buried the bottle the cellar grew icy cold, then warmed up a little as Mike patted the earth flat. </p>
<p>“I know a prayer” said Julian. “Thank God she's gone”.</p>
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